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Who actually takes Nalia?

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  • WendschlagWendschlag Member Posts: 33
    edited January 2013
    The annoying NPC's are the reason BG2 was greater except Imoen. :(
  • ZuttiZutti Member Posts: 94
    mlnevese said:

    Yeah Imoen shouldn't resist when her soul is pulled and she was supposed to die in Spellhold. This changed very late in the game development.

    This.

    Nalia is not redundant. Nalia was intended to be a potential, permanent replacement for Imoen.

    This is also why Imoen has pretty much nothing for banters, side-quests, etc.

    rdarkenjscohenQuartz
  • jcdenton11jcdenton11 Member Posts: 20
    edited January 2013
    In my only full play through (as a monk) in BG2, I used her as my mage along with Aerie as secondary. Her personality didn't really bother me, it made enough sense with her upbringing and alignment. By the time I got to Imoen's rescue, I had Nalia tweaked to my liking, so Imoen wasn't worth the effort to bring up to par. Her stronghold was fun as well.
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    That DEFINITELY explains why there are two Thief/Mages in the game. I never knew that.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    Kortok said:

    I don't even understand why Nalia is in the game. Maybe foreshadowing to the garbage developer Bioware has unfortunately become.

    She is a solid NPC with a consistent personality. Yes she's annoying but so are people in real life. Not everyone is in fiction needs to be a Mary Sue.
    SCARY_WIZARDQuartzCvijeta
  • SCARY_WIZARDSCARY_WIZARD Member Posts: 1,438
    Bhaaldog said:

    I like Nalia. She is cute, just slightly misguided due to her privileged upbringing. I wished they had added her as a potential romance option though.

    Yeah, it's ultimately that, that made me really warm up to her. She's a character that has a lot of learning to do. As far as the potential romance option goes, I couldn't agree more with that, I always beeline for the Nalia Romance mod when I inevitably bork one of my installs due to bad install order.

    Also, her voice actress is absolutely adorable and his the funniest Twitter page in existence. It's a lot of fun listening to Nalia and Viconia argue with each other, because it's a case of the voice actress "talking to herself". If only we could have Gorion and Minsc argue with each other...
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    @Jaxsbudgie What quests are those?
  • JaxsbudgieJaxsbudgie Member Posts: 600
    rdarken said:

    @Jaxsbudgie What quests are those?

    Quests that never were!

    SCARY_WIZARD
  • ReadingRamboReadingRambo Member Posts: 598
    Never knew that about Imoen dying. That makes a lot of sense actually. I think I would have cried in that event lol!
  • ScotGaymerScotGaymer Member Posts: 526
    I like her better than I like BG2 Jaheira and Aerie.
  • lDanielHolmlDanielHolm Member Posts: 225
    I often pick up Nalia, as a permanent addition to my usually very caster-heavy BG2 parties. I mostly played a Good male Fighter, and I liked all three of the romancable NPCs, so my party was Aerie, Jaheira, Viconia, plus Nalia, plus Imoen (bringing Yoshimo along until I can replace him with Imoen). Yoshimo's OK for a Thief, and Thief is one of the more redundant classes anyway. Clerics can Find Traps and Mages can Knock, so I don't usually bother focusing much on Thieves in BG2.

    I usually swap her with Edwin for my more neutral playthroughs, but often I just don't bother--you can build a permanent party rather quickly if you want to, and I never really keep the others around except to finish off their quests (if I even do them). I almost never pick up Jan, for example.
  • SelabocSelaboc Member Posts: 64
    I like her and usually find a spot in the party for her. I remember being disappointed my first play thru when I found out she wasn't one of the romance options. fortunately there's a mod for that! :)
    SCARY_WIZARD
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    Pantalion said:

    I take all the NPCs when I play, even the vapid self-absorbed ones with a child's idea of good and evil who whine about not helping peasants whilst clearing out their keep.

    You mean Aerie?

    SCARY_WIZARD
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    Djimmy said:

    To the guys that state Nalia is redundant/being Imoen2. Maybe that is true but why is that something bad. If they make all the NPCs to be too different just for the sake of being different, that would make things unreal. It is like creating areas only for the main quest and nothing else. I don't quite get that. In real life do you have friends that are redundant? I personally don't hate Nalia but nowadays I play mostly solo.

    The idea isn't to make different for the sake of different. It is the fact that there are a lot of different choices to be had in D&D. Why be redundant?

    Also, she isn't just a duplicate of Imoen, she is inferior to her in most ways. So why make an inferior duplicate when there are lots of other choices to be had?

    And this isn't real life. It is a game.
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    I can't see why anyone hates Aerie.

    Have you ever tried contingencies and sequencers with divine magic? Clearly a top tier class.
    Erg
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    I have really loved Nalia in my first, virgin BG2 game. Her personality did not come annoying to me, she is a bit naive yes but does mean well and does her best to help others. Whereas she could have just stayed in her castle showered in luxuries and all. But she still sees the poor people as inferior, due to her upbringing, which makes an endearing character trait IMHO.

    In game terms she is not a very capable thief, but gets the job done with the occasional help from rings/potions for the more difficult locks. Her unique ring is an excellent protection item. Her stats are very good. Also she has some very nice, hard to find spells in her spellbook right when you recruit her. IIRC polymorph self and disintegrate and others. (Though she does not have magic missile, which is very easy to fix ASAP)

    In my first game I had Nalia and eventually Imoen together and they were a blast, like sisters. It was a SoA only game. When ToB came out I played a different party (tried Jan and found him and his quest a lot more annoying than Nally Nalia) and when at last I was in ToB and summoned Nalia, I was a bit dissapointed. She was all changed, acting more maturely, speaking in a more nasal voice, and lost her charm to me.

    Now I usually take her to do her quest in her keep, she has good inputs in her quest and if you had her in the party, I believe she gives a greater reward at the end of her quest. Then I leave her in her keep to 'keep' an eye on there and all..
    SCARY_WIZARD
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    Dazzu said:

    I can't see why anyone hates Aerie.

    Have you ever tried contingencies and sequencers with divine magic? Clearly a top tier class.

    I LOVE the utility of Aerie. After all, she physically has more spells available than any single other character in the game (unless you do something similar with your PC).

    I think her personality leaves a lot to be desired. But that may be personal choice.

    The_New_Romance
  • ErgErg Member Posts: 1,756
    Dazzu said:

    I can't see why anyone hates Aerie.

    Have you ever tried contingencies and sequencers with divine magic? Clearly a top tier class.

    I can see why someone may hate Aerie (for her whining), but I definitely agree on how powerful may be mixing wizard and priest spells in sequencers and contingencies.
  • FFGFFG Member Posts: 52
    edited January 2013

    they planned to have Imoen die in Spellhold until very late, and by then it was probably too late to change Nalia.

    interesting I wasn't aware of that
    Bhaaldog said:

    I wished they had added her as a potential romance option though.

    Isn't there a Nalia romance mod?

  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    Erg said:


    I can see why someone may hate Aerie (for her whining), but I definitely agree on how powerful may be mixing wizard and priest spells in sequencers and contingencies.

    Her power is the only reason I have ever played with her. The only reason I ever put up with her whining. If not for her casting ability, I'd have left her in the tent where I found her, and probably in the ogre form as well.
    KidCarnival
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    I like Nalia a lot. Both because of her capabilities (in single class advancing Mage that isn't limited to dagger and sling) and because of her personality. Of course it shows she's from a high upbringing, but she's actually the only one that really cares about poverty and social issues in the game. And in her striving to raise people from poverty I recognize a lot of my own aspirations in life in her. If I weren't helping to make this world a better place, well, I'd very much would want to exit this world. By doing something for others, you help co-create a world that's good to live in, without injustices. And of course upbringing brings a bias to it (though I'm from a middle-class background myself, even though I live close to the poverty line of course now with being a disabled person living from a benifit).
    lunar
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    lunarSCARY_WIZARD
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    Nalia's ring is pretty useful. A +2 Prot ring with Fire resistances that DOESN'T limit you from magical armor is great, especially for the +2 saving throws bonus more than anything.
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    edited January 2013
    tilly said:

    I have trouble not taking her along. ^_^

    By the game a good-aligned party gets Imoen back, Nalia is usually much stronger. The alternatives? Multi-classed mage progression. And, yeah, Aerie is great - but she's never my main mage. More of a supporter and cleric until endgame.

    Plus I like having lots of bow users in party. :D

    And Aerie and Jan can both be annoying... along with pretty much all characters? *-)... ... yup, I think so. XD Only character I've never not liked on a playthrough is Haer'Dalis. Little cutey. ^w^

    The problem with Nalia vs Imoen is that Nalia doesn't have the thieving skills that Imoen had on changeover. So you end up having to have a thief in addition to Nalia. Not so much with Imoen. Sure your party is usually higher level than Imoen when you get her back, but at least she can fill the void left by Yoshimo in the thief space as a backup to her casting ability.

    Personally I enjoy Jan. He is a scream. And put him in the same party as Minsc and prepare to laugh. And he is both a fairly competent Mage and a very competent thief. I usually play a Wizard as my main, so I don't need a full dedicated Wizard out of Imoen, Nalia or Jan.

    I can't say that I have ever liked Haer'Dalis. I used him once for the dimensional mission and then never again.
  • AesgarethAesgareth Member Posts: 16
    I had Nalia along w/ Imoen on my 1st SoA playthrough so i can't judge her as pt member because i didn't have that much knowledge of the game at the time. Her battlecry though had me grinding my teeth every single time i heard it so i finally emptied her inv, killed and dismissed her from pt (or something like that).

    I sincerely admire your patience for using her for whole SoA/ ToB playthroughs! GG guys!
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    Her battle cry stinks, but her crit is awesome. She sounds so surprised by herself. "YES!"
    Jaxsbudgie
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  • AesgarethAesgareth Member Posts: 16
    off topic: thinking of the dialogs, does any1 else also think that BG1 is a hell of a lot funnier than BG2?

    npcs like Peter of the North come to mind
    lunar
  • PlasticGolemPlasticGolem Member Posts: 98
    It is true that Nalia and Imoen occupy the same nice operationally: they are mages who can open locks and find traps, only Imoen can do it well enough that she can pretty much make it through to the end of ToB without any assistance and Nalia can't. If Imoen had not made it through Spellhold as intended, Nalia would be a more viable character but, as is, she isn't really a logical choice from either a gamist or story perspective: she's not as good a mage, and you aren't likely to abandon Imoen in order to take Nalia from a role-playing perspective.

    To keep her relevant, she could have been re-done as a straight thief (maybe a swashbuckler), or even a mage dual-classed to thief at level 4. Either of those would have made her more strategically viable (there are no decent thieves in the game apart from Yoshimo, whom you don't get to keep. Also, those class choices would be more in keeping with her persona as a diletante: the fact that she was a mage never made much sense to me, but I could buy that she dabbled in it and then gave it up to follow pursuits which required less dedication. However, I think the game wants you to take Yoshimo, so providing a viable alternative may not have been desirable from that perspective.

    Personality-wise, she's superficially annoying, but interesting as a character. She thinks of herself as a woman of the people, but is completely unaware of her elitism and privilege. In ToB (I vaguely remember) she seems to mature quite a bit as a result of traveling with the group. I think she's one of the more subtle and realistic personalities of the game.
    lunarJaxsbudgieThe_New_Romance
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